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Braces at 30: My 12th tightening appointment update (18 months)

Posted on 12:00pm Monday 18th Sep 2017

I can’t quite believe it, but I’ve had my brace on for 18 months now! It feels like a milestone! And perhaps not the most joyous of milestones as it was predicted I’d need a brace for 18-24 months, so this means the 18 month window has gone out the window! It’s looking more like 24 months now as there’s still a lot to fix. We left it a few months to put the bottom brace on as it seemed like less work, but now I think the top is coming together and there still seems to be a lot to do at the bottom. Perhaps it would have been best to just put them both on at the same time?

I may be wrong though and my orthodontist says sometimes it all falls into place at the end. I hope so as I am ready to have my mouth back please. Get this thing off me!

I will be patient though and will wait until everything is as perfect as can be. There’s no point in spending all this time and money to rush the brace off and not be 100% happy with the outcome.

Since my 11th appointment I haven’t noticed a huge difference. I can’t tell any difference at the top at all, though a couple of friends and family have remarked how good my teeth are looking, so maybe they have changed. They definitely look perfectly aligned, but I think because there are so many gaps to the front around my peg tooth and next to the false tooth, I can’t see past these.

Here’s what’s going on:

Overbite

My silly overbite is still 5.5mm, even though I made sure I was wearing those annoying top to bottom elastics most of the time. Luckily I don’t have to wear them at the moment as I have gone back a wire on the bottom teeth for now. So we’ll probably come back to this overbite once I have the thick steel on again.

Gaps for false tooth and veneer

The peg tooth and its gaps are 8mm and these need to be 6mm. The false tooth gap is fine. I now have a very long elastic across all of the top brace to bring them altogether and close this 2mm. Then, as far as I know this is everything at the top aside from the overbite.

Gaps at bottom

I’d noticed there was still a gap in the middle of my bottom front teeth. The teeth had closed at the very top, but were on a slant so there was quite a sizeable space which I could fit a large interdental brush between. My orthodontist said it could either be the teeth have gone together slightly slanted and not perfectly upright, or the edges of the teeth aren’t straight. She thinks they have gone together at an angle, like a triangle, so just the top bits have met. We’ve gone back a step with the wire and she changed it to the last wire to move the teeth into a better position. Hopefully this will bring them more upright and then we can close this gap for good! It means the rest of the gaps at the bottom will have to wait for now.

Next steps

Closing gaps and improving overbite seems to be everything there is left to do. I also need to ask my dentist at what point he’ll do the veneer and bridge. Some like the retainer to be on for a while first, whereas some might do it sooner. I’ll see what he has to say, but I hope it’s sooner rather than later or we could be heading over three years before I get the finished result.

My 18th month brace timeline

It’s quite disgusting looking so close at my mouth! But I loved looking at other people’s photos when I was researching whether to have a brace, so I’ve decided to share mine. It’s also quite amazing to see the progress. At this stage, when very little seems to be happening, it’s easy to forget just how awful my teeth were and how they upset me every day. Seeing this difference makes it all worthwhile and reminds me to be patient!